Pictures of our Family in January!

 

January for Grandad and Me

Whitney James,  a friend from the ward, took this picture of us walking to church, and she texted it to me.

Here we are trying to record a birthday message for Starla.

One of the dates in our dinner date book!  We're having fun with that!

The dad pruning trees.

Making sauerkraut.

Dressing up like we are 100 years old on the Hundredth day of School.

Making Giardenere

The dad got a turkey from work, so we bottled the meat, and we made broth from the bones.

Another Dinner Date.  This date had a "Who knows their spouse better?" game.  I lost.

Shoveling Snow

We finally goat around to making our cheese houses.

My BYU ivy has died.  I snipped off the tips to try to reroot that part. but I am not optimistic.

 

Our Adventure in Flagstaff!

Amy and Cody spent the week between Christmas and the New Year with us in Gallup.  On New Year's Day, one of the kids wasn't feeling well so they decided to head for home instead of going to Sacrament Meeting.  We went to church and they took off at about the same time.  During Sacrament Meeting, the dad got a text from Amy.  He left the meeting and went to call her.  Their car had died (literally) just outside of Chambers, AZ, which is about 40 minutes from Gallup.

We had walked to church that day, and it started raining/slushing during church.  Jaque Wallace gave us a ride home.  We jumped in the pick-up truck and went to get them.  It was Fast Sunday, and we had been fasting for them to have a safe trip in spite of the weather.  I feel like the Lord was watching out for them.  They could easily have died in the middle of a no-cell-service area, but their car stopped at the top of a hill where they not only had cell service, but cars on the freeway could see them from a long way away, so they were much safer.  We drove all the way from Gallup there in heavy rainy slush, but it stopped right before we got to them.  They had been waiting in an area unaffected from the storm.

We got there just minutes after the tow-truck arrived.  The tow truck driver showed them a piece of a broken piston and told them that it would do no good to tow their car to Pep Boys.  The engine had been blown.

 We all fit in the pick-up, complete with car seats. And we headed back to Gallup.  We had the tow guy tow to car to our house until we could have it towed somewhere else.  We had bad stormy weather for a few more days, so they stayed at our house (Cody was able to work from home) until the storm broke.

I had to go to work the next day.  Doug, Amy and Cody had the day off.  When I got home, they had put  all the Christmas decorations away!  I didn't have to do a thing!  (What a year!  Menfolk put up all the outside decorations Thanksgiving weekend.  Angela put up all of the inside decorations while I was at work, and now I didn't even have to put any of them away!  It's a Christmas Miracle!)

We had the Phoenix branch of the family a few more days, and when the weather broke, they headed back home in our Toyota.  Fortunately, the dad has a work vehicle.  He was able to use that to get to and from work.  I used the pick-up, and all was well.  They could use the Toyota until they were able to find just the right vehicle for them.

They did find a car that is really a nice one.  So we had to find a weekend when we could get the Toyota back.

We decided to meet in Flagstaff for that!  What a fun little adventure!  We got a couple of hotel rooms. Amy left earlier than Cody.  Cody came up in the Toyota after he finished work for the day.   She got to the hotel before we did, so she and the boys went swimming while they were waiting.  The hotel desk person let them go ahead and check without the dad's being there.  That worked out nicely!

We had a tasty delicious charcuterie dinner in the hotel room., and played Hungry Hungry Hippos. Then Cody got there, and we all went to bed for the night!

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, played Hungry, Hungry Hippos.  The pool opened at 9:00, so The Pederson crew got to go swimming again, which made those little boys very happy!  

We had to check out of the hotel by 11:00, so we  went on a long walk around and around a Walmart Parking lot.  (All the sidewalks were covered in ice.  That was the only place we could really walk.)  We wanted to go out to lunch before heading to our respective homes, so it was a fun adventure until lunch time.

After our walk we went to downtown Flagstaff and had lunch at Diablo Burger.  Their burgers we absolutely delicious, and they also were Gluten-free friendly, which worked out nicely!

After lunch, we all went back to our own homes.  The dad drove the pickup and I drove my car.